How To Estimate Home Moving Costs

Do you want to learn how to estimate moving costs? There is a simple calculation to estimate your home moving costs: Volume + Labour + Distance. But that is just the basic cost of a home move, there are many extras that could be added, and many things that you cannot put a monetary value to.

Congratulations! You are about to start a whole new chapter in your life with your impending home move.

But inevitably the associated costs are mounting quickly and that voice in the back of your mind keeps muttering those immortal words “How much is moving home going to cost me?”

Are you putting off that inevitable phone call, or internet search, to find out what a removal company will charge you to move your home?

Everyone says that moving home is expensive. And that is just what you don’t need, more expense. But as the saying goes, there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

Once you know how to calculate your home moving costs, you can then compare a self-move cost with the cost of employing a reputable removal company.

A ball-park figure maybe, but forewarned is forearmed, and if it helps you determine your home moving budget so much better.

And maybe, just maybe, you can take some actions to reduce those costs before you start getting a more accurate home moving estimate from a reputable removal company or decide that you really have no option other than the dreaded self-move.

How Much Do Removal Companies Cost?

What Do Removal Companies Charge?

Volume

This is the amount of space your household items will occupy in a removal vehicle. More belongings equal more space required to transport them and therefore a bigger removal vehicle.

The average volume prices charged by a reputable removal company equate to about £1 per cubic foot. For example:

• 1 Bedroom property – 250-500 Cubic feet – £250 – £530
• 2 Bedroom property – 500-700 Cubic feet – £500 – £720
• 3 Bedroom property – 750-1000 Cubic feet – £750 – £1050
• 4 Bedroom property – 1000-1500 Cubic feet – £1300 – £1700

The good news: We may have an opportunity to reduce our costs here.

Moving House Cost Reduction Tip: The easiest way to reduce your moving costs is to declutter your home. Sell, donate or give away any items that you no longer need and so will not be taking with you.

Must read: The Epic Guide to Decluttering for a Home Move. The one guaranteed way to reduce your home moving costs is to reduce the number of items you move to your new home. In this guide, we offer lots of useful tips and advice on how to declutter your home.

Labour Hours

This is the number of people and estimated hours it will take to load and unload your belongings.

Remember that things like the distance from your home to the removal vehicle and if the furniture has to be hauled down flights of stairs will affect this part of the calculation.

• The average hourly rate charged by a reputable moving company is £50-£60 per hour, per man, usually with a minimum charge of 2 hours.
• A 1 bedroom property may take 2-3 hours to move – £100 – £180 per man
• A 2 bedroom property may take 3-5 hours to move – £150 – £300 per man
• A 3 to 4-bedroom property may take 7 hours to move – £350 – £420 per man
• A 5-bedroom property may take 8-10 hours to move – £400 – £600 per man

The good news: If we reduce the number of items to be loaded and unloaded, we can reduce the number of hours we have to pay for labour.

Moving Home Cost Reduction Tip: Measure that your furniture fits in your new home. There is no point in paying removal costs only to find your furniture will not fit.

You may like to read: How to Create a Floor Plan. Creating a floor plan for your new home will enable you to calculate whether your furniture will fit in the space available and critically whether you can physically get your furniture into the room you want.

Distance

The removal company will charge you the cost of fuel from your old to the new property. They may also charge you from their depot to your home.

• The average charge made by a reputable removal company is £1 per mile.

The good news: We may have an opportunity to reduce or eliminate the depot-to-home charges. And we will need to sense check the charge for fuel between old and new addresses.

The bad news: The distance between your old and new home is fixed. Nothing we can do about that. But if the charges between removal companies are wildly different we need to find out what route the company is taking and why.

Extra Services

Packing services, packing materials, dismantling and reassembly of furniture, disconnecting and reconnecting appliances, insurance, and specialist moving equipment will all add costs.

The average charges made by a reputable removal company for additional home moving services:

• Packing Service – £20 per person per hour. About £400 for a 3 bedroom house.
• Packing Materials – £100 for an average 3-bedroom house.
• Dismantling Furniture – £150 for an average 3-bedroom house.
• Cleaning – £20 per hour.
• Storage – £30 per week for a 100 sq. ft. container.

Using a reputable removal company will always be the easy, stress-free option. You will have a fixed price, the move itself will take half the time that a self-move would and you gain the peace of mind that your home move will go as smoothly as possible.

It is easy to get a free home removal estimate from a reputable removal company by clicking here.

We have put together some really useful articles packed with information for home movers looking for home move cost information which you can find in our home moving blog.

Essential reading:

• What are the average costs of moving a 1 or 2-bedroom property? Compare the costs of hiring a professional removal company vs moving home by yourself.

• What is the average cost of moving a 3-bedroom property? Compare just how much it costs to move a 3 bedroom property yourself and how much a good removal company will charge.

How to Estimate Self-Move Costs

How to estimate the cost of a home move that you perform yourself is slightly harder to calculate.

There may not be immediate costs associated with your home move, but the potential for additional costs and stress is greatly increased when you do not use a professional removal company.

However, the factors that you need to take into consideration to estimate the cost of your house move are the same as when employing a reputable removal company.

Volume

• The standard home moving box is 3 cubic feet.
• A fridge freezer is 30 cubic feet.
• A 3.5t box van holds about 200 standard boxes.
• A 7.5t box van holds about 400 standard boxes.

That gives you a rough idea of how to calculate the space you will need in a van to load all your belongings.

A professional removal company will know exactly how to load a van to optimize space. It is unlikely you will have that knowledge so a larger van may be required or an extra journey.

You may have chosen to pack your belongings yourself, using recycled boxes, so the boxes will not be a uniform shape or size. This may affect how many boxes you can fit into the hire van, resulting in multiple trips.

Thus, you may need to extend the van hire to another day, with the likelihood of incurring charges from the people trying to move into your old home.

Don’t forget that you will also incur insurance excess charges of about £500-£1000 should you damage the vehicle.

• A 3.5t Luton van will move the average 1-2 bedroom property – taking about 200 standard boxes – it will cost about £90 – £130 per day.
• A 7.5t Box van will move the average 3 bedroom house – taking about 400 standard boxes – it will cost about £130 – £200 per day.

Labour Hours

This depends upon how reliable your friends and family are. If they fail to show up on moving day you could be looking at about £40 per hour to hire labour.

Equally, how do you factor in the cost of a slipped disc or other personal injuries that you may sustain when performing contortions getting that wardrobe down the stairs?

The removal company will know exactly how to manoeuvre a settee through a doorway. You more than likely will not, so the whole moving process could take longer than expected and be far more hazardous.

On average it will take twice as long to move home yourself than a reputable removal company would take.

You may also like to read: How to Get Friends to Help You Move Home. Many hands make light work so in this guide we look at how to ask friends to help you move home.

Distance

This is a simple MPG calculation, but don’t forget that some vehicle hire companies will have a cap on the number of free miles you can travel.

• A 3.5t vehicle averages 25mpg.
• A 7.5t vehicle averages 16mpg.

Extra Costs

• Insurance – Factor in the cost of the additional insurance you will need to cover your belongings whilst in transit. Most removal companies will include this in their estimate.

Packing materials will add £60-£100 for a one to two bedroom property and £120-£200 for a three bedroom house.

Handling equipment – Sack barrows and straps will cost about £80 for a day’s hire.

You will likely need to hire a SatNav that is specific to large vehicles, as your car SatNav will probably send you down unsuitable routes. Expect to pay about £20 a day to hire a satnav.

Damage repair costs for your old and new home, as well as any damage caused to your belongings. When using a removal company they will be responsible for these costs.

Please remember that all of the above costs are averages, and are not specific to your home move. But now you know how to get an estimate from a reputable removal company and how to calculate the costs for a self-move.

But costs are only half the equation when moving home and there is a whole range of skills and knowledge you may need to acquire to ensure a stress-free moving day.

There is a whole library of useful information for home movers to be found here in our home moving blog.

See, that wasn’t too painful, was it? The art of estimating home moving costs demystified.

Good luck with your home move.